Things Unseen, Things Unknown and Things Yet to Be

by Shadow Master

(BtVS/Sekirei) Years have passed since Sunnydale became a sinkhole in California and the Scoobies have done well founding a new Council to guide the Slayer line and protect the world. Now a new development has Xander returning to Cleveland and it will change EVERYTHING.

2. Clearly Disturbing Encounters

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and associated companies. I make no profit off of this whatsoever and I have no intention of changing this in the future. I write because it's fun and because there are those who enjoy reading my works. I would prefer not to be made to see the inside of a courtroom because of my hobby.

Izumo Inn, Early Evening, Asama Miya's POV

A new scent has come to this city, she thought as she swept the front walkway of the inn.

Indeed she had sensed its approach since late this morning and it had only gotten stronger since then. It had been so prominent to her senses that she'd almost forgotten to chastise Uzume-san for walking around the inn without her panties. That didn't happen, though, and hopefully her tenant would finally conduct herself with the proper decency while she was within the inn. If past experience was any indicator, then her words would work for a few weeks before the young woman would forget and have to be reminded all over again. Still, she could not give up hope that eventually the brunette would grow into a fine woman and perhaps create a family of her own. Until that day came she would continue to do as an older sister should and teach her the proper way to behave while punishing her for any improper behavior.

As for the new scent, it was truly mysterious; no matter how much she tried, she could not define it. It was unlike anything she had ever sensed before but for some reason she didn't believe that it was a threat to her or the people she cared about. Whatever it turned out to be, she suspected that it might just alter the path the future would have otherwise taken, even if only by a little bit. She could not say that she was opposed to this possibility because the future, as it stood twenty-four hours ago, had not been a bright one.

With that horrid man in charge of MBI she knew that this city would soon become his playground where he would pit innocent people against one another for no other reason than because it amused him. When she thought of all the heartache that would occur over the next year or so, it was almost enough for her to open the trunk she had up in the attic. However each time she thought of doing so, two things stayed her hand and reminded her that it was not her place anymore to take direct action in such matters. The first was the fact that, as strong as she was, she was still only one person and that man knew her methods well enough that she was sure he'd already taken steps to hinder any efforts at a direct assault. The second… the second was that every time she looked at the contents of the trunk, she was reminded of that day of loss and a sharp pain caused her strength to abandon her.

Confronted with these two things she was force to acknowledge that all she could do was give shelter to those she could and if possible help those that would enter the battlefield to survive.

It was all she could do.

Hearing the door to the Inn open, she watched as Kagari-san walked through, dressed in his work clothes as an employee of a host club. She guessed that he had chosen to take a night off from his 'hobby' in order to do work that paid for a change. A good thing, too, since, by her reckoning, the young man was at least two months behind in his rent. She would hate to have to kick him out and not just because she needed the money in order to pay the bills for the Inn, but also because she genuinely enjoyed the young man's company.

"Off to work I see, Kagari-san?"

"Yes. I haven't been putting in enough hours for the manager so I have to catch up," Kagari-san said, closing the door to the Inn behind him. "I'll be back late so I'll try to be quiet coming in."

"Of course. Give it your best at work," she said before taking on a tone her husband had used on occasion. "You are late on your rent, after all."

While she kept her expression polite as always, on the inside she took a measure of satisfaction in the fact that she had managed to get her point across to her tenant. The look of unease on his face and the look of fear in his eyes that showed for a moment told her that. She wouldn't do anything to hurt him or even hold him to specific date of when he'd have to pay all he owed her but little incentives like this were necessary. Even after all her husband did to make the Inn and maintain it until his death, there were still bills to pay and that meant money needed to be brought in. Considering that only Uzume, Matsu and Kagari lived with her, she was barely making ends meet as it was. Uzume's jobs were random and often part time due to her frequent trips to the hospital. Matsu used her computers to acquire the money she contributed. Kagari had his job at the host club. While she would follow her husband's example of never closing the doors of the Inn to people truly in need of shelter, she still had to make money where and when she could.

"A-ah… yeah. Don't worry," Kagari-san said with sincerity. "I'll work as hard as I can and with tips I can probably pay most of what I owe back."

"That will be fine," she said with a warm smile. "Well, I'll see you later."

"See ya!" Kagari said, walking away in the direction of his job.

Resuming her sweeping as the sun began to set on the city, a part of her mind continued to try and make sense of what she was feeling at the moment and it's true nature.

Despite her intelligence, she didn't think she would be able to figure it out anytime soon without some sort of hint.

The Streets of Shintō Teito, Japan, Mid-Evening, Xander's POV

I'm gonna have to have a little talk with Sydney the next time I see her, he thought as he drove down the street looking for anything out of the ordinary. What's the point in giving me a weapon like this if I can't conceal it? Plus whoever heard of a six piece weapon?!

Looking at the weapon's case in the back seat of the car, he couldn't fault the quality of the blades but none of them were small enough that he could conceal even in a trench coat. At the rate things were going, he'd have to stick close to his car and stick to yanking out the smaller blades unless he needed something bigger. It'd show if he moved the wrong way or if the person looking at him was particularly observant, but it was a personal rule of his to never go anywhere without some sort of weapon on him. Still… there was a part of him that sort of, kind of, liked the weapon as he remembered the film that it'd been in and he remembered how much he'd liked watching it. He doubted that he'd be able to use it like the main protagonist in the movie but he'd used big weapons like that before, so it wasn't like he was a complete amateur.

If these ladies turn out to be as powerful as the pics say they are, I'll probably need to break it out eventually. He stopped at a red light. I just hope that I don't get sued or something. Probably not with all the cosplay stuff that goes on in the world. Maybe they'll offer me a part in a new movie!

It was a whimsical thought that he brushed away within seconds since, while he might've wished for the life of a movie star back in SunnyD, he knew it wouldn't be conducive to his current responsibilities. At the moment the things he was obligated to do required keeping a low profile and not attracting unnecessary attention towards him or the Council. If he failed in being discreet, he'd have to make sure that no evidence of the connections he had to the others were ever found and silence any who looked like they were getting too close to the truth.

It'd probably mean getting his hands dirty but that was nothing new to him.

He was just driving past a multi-level parking garage when a flicker of light caught his attention and it wasn't from any visible source of light that he could see. In fact, it was more like light being reflected off of something and, when he looked about the area for the source, he saw very violent movement coming from within the garage. When he spotted a flash of purple light he knew he'd hit his first lead and immediately pulled a hard right turn into the garage, ignoring the honking of the horns. He got a bit annoyed at the booth operator but, the moment that waste of time was over with, he drove as quickly as he could up to the second level from the top in the hopes of at least seeing the combatants with his own eyes before they pulled a vanishing act. Fortunately for him there didn't seem to be a great many cars in the garage so he didn't have to worry about maneuvering around them. It was when he arrived at the location of the fight that he took in three things.

The first was the fact that there were three occupants before him engaged in a two on one fight that definitely went against his preference for a fair fight. While it was another thing entirely if the one turned out to be someone who'd have no trouble taking two enemies on at once, judging from the person who was the one in trouble, he found this to be an exception to his rules.

The next thing his mind perceived were the details of the three unknowns and immediately he began to make connections with the two aggressors and the picture he had in the file. Oddly enough they were twins and, from the way they were holding each other's hands, they either needed tactile contact to use their powers or had a phobia about be separated. They were also wearing the S&M outfits they'd been wearing in the picture, making him wonder if he really wanted to attract their attention. He'd dated a few women in his lifetime and none of the ones that were into that sort of thing ever left without leaving some painful marks on him.

True, he'd left more than his fair share of marks on them but that didn't count since he was pretty sure they'd gotten off on them.

Down on one knee a dozen feet from the S&M Twins was a young woman either in her late teens or early twenties with short black hair and the number seventy-two tattooed on her left shoulder in purple ink. She wore something that looked like a cross between a crochet halter top and a turtle neck of the same color as her tattoo but what caught his attention first were the knife holsters strapped to her upper arms. Looking around, he could see the former occupants of those holsters sticking out of some parked cars and anything weaker than concrete. She wore dark purple gloves that went up her arms and stopped just shy of the holsters while her long skirt seemed to be split up the front quite a bit. He wasn't sure if she had shorts or anything underneath but, if she did, they'd have to be hot pants or biker shorts because anything else would be visible from his present position.

The final thing he took note of though was the fact that whatever fight the two sides were having appeared to be pretty much over with. The twins were in far better shape then the knife thrower, whose clothes were torn in places and whose body was covered with obvious injuries, some of which bled. None of the injuries looked like they required a hospital to fix but the odds that she'd be able to turn the fight around were slim his reckoning. Then, of course, there was the fact that he HATED bullies so that pretty much meant that he was crashing this party whether it was a good idea or not.

Reaching into the duffel bag that was in the passenger seat, he pulled out one of the little 'surprises' he had brought with him on the off chance he ran into something he couldn't handle. He pulled the pin on the metal cylinder while sliding the car to a stop next to the purple clad young woman, with the passenger side facing her.

"Close your eyes, ninja girl!"

Fortunately for him the short haired young woman didn't hesitate, so it was only the S&M ladies who got a bright flash in the face and enough noise to rattle their eardrums.

"Come with me if you want to live!" he yelled as he pushed open the passenger side door and tossed the duffel back in the back with the case of six blades.

He winced a bit as he realized that he'd just quoted Arnie and that he didn't really know whether or not the twins planned on killing ninja girl, but it was too late to worry about it now.

Fortunately for him the young woman didn't recognize the quote or, if she did, she didn't care because she hopped into the passenger seat and slammed the door shut. Not wasting any time he shifted into first and peeled some rubber heading back the way he came even as the sound of two angry women cursing in Japanese reached his ears. Sadly, whether it was due to his love of Anime or his experience as a Watcher, he understood everything they were saying and some of it was as imaginative as it was painful. Navigating the multi-story parking garage while heading towards the exit, he kept glancing a bit in the rearview mirror for any sign that they were being pursued. He wasn't sure if the twins could do anything other than toss lighting around but he seriously hoped that they couldn't move as fast as electricity, otherwise things were going to get a bit complicated.

Sparing her a glance, he could see that, while his passenger seemed to be relieved to get out of the fight she was losing, she wasn't entirely trusting him either but as he put his eye back on the road he found that he didn't mind. She had no reason to trust him seeing as how they'd just met but he hoped that he'd at least won some trust from her by pulling her out of a tight spot. Entering traffic a bit cleaner than he'd left it, he kept his guard up but, after ten minutes of nothing, he concluded that the twins had given up.

Guess super speed doesn't come with the electro-lady package, he thought as he began looking for a place to tend to the young lady's wounds. Good thing since fighting people with that power is a major pain in the ass.

Seeing an empty parking lot with zero cover aside from some parking meters, he pulled in before going far enough from the busy street that he'd be able to see newcomers quick enough.

The Empty Parking Lot, Natsu's POV

Who was this man?

It was a question she had been asking herself ever since she'd seen his car come screeching into view after she'd suffered a particularly bad hit by those loser Sekirei twins. Then again, if the stranger hadn't shown up when he had, she'd likely be the one labeled loser right before they put her down for good. She'd been searching the city by night, as she often did when she wasn't working, looking for the thing every one of her kin had been seeking since they'd taken their first steps into this city. Even though it had been a while since her search had begun and, even though she hadn't yet found a clue, she was still confident that she'd find who she was looking for.

Then, just as she had been in mid-leap between buildings, the S&M twins had attacked.

She'd heard about them from a few of her sisters that had been in the city longer than her. Apparently they were a pair of winged Sekirei that specifically targeted members of their kin that hadn't yet found the special someone they were looking for. It was why most of her brothers and sisters had a low opinion of the two since it was obvious that the only reason the duo targeted such a specific group was because they weren't good enough to take on an enemy capable of going all out. Sadly she was one of those who couldn't bring their full strength to bear, so she had been forced to fight with what she'd had. She'd gotten a few good throws in with her blades at the beginning of the fight but it soon became clear that two on one odds along with an attack much faster then her own was too much for her to overcome. Nevertheless she was stubborn enough that she wasn't going to give up while she still had a few blades left in her holsters, but there at the end she'd been seriously thinking about making a run for it.

That's when the strange man next to her had appeared and thrown some type of grenade at the twins before offering her a method of escape. On instinct more than conscious thought she'd jumped into his car and, the moment she closed the door, her rescuer had torn out of there at a high rate of speed. As they'd driven along, obviously making sure they'd lost the twins, she'd asked herself the same question over and over since it didn't make sense for a perfect stranger to help her out. With that in mind she added two more questions to the original one: what did he want with her and was she going to have to start running soon.

"Well, let's get those scrapes and cuts taken care of, 'kay?" The man said as he got out of the car, "Give me a minute to get the first aid kit out of the trunk and we'll see what we can do."

He stopped here to tend to my injuries? She thought with a bit of surprise since it hadn't been her first guess concerning what he intended to do.

The reminder of the hits she'd taken caused the injuries to flare up a bit and she winced in pain at some of the more serious ones. If this guy was willing to patch her up then she was hardly going to stop him and, if he asked for something unreasonable for compensation, she still had one blade left. Hearing him open the trunk, she decided that it'd be best if she got out of the car since there wasn't near enough room for wounds to be tended to properly. Opening the passenger side door, she got out and only winced a bit as she put her weight on a leg that had a nasty gash on the thigh before she walked towards the rear of the car. As she came around the side and her eyes beheld the contents of the trunk, she seriously had to wonder who the man was again. He pulled out of the trunk a large red and white box that was matched what she'd seen of first aid kits but around it were other things you didn't normally see in trunks.

She was fairly sure that an assortment of shotguns, automatic pistols, assault rifles and a bazooka weren't any more typical of most trunks than the throwing axes, the daggers or odd bottles filled with things she couldn't identify. As he closed the trunk, he must've caught her gaping because he put on a disarming lopsided grin before setting the kit down on the top of the trunk.

"I know what you're probably thinking. You're probably thinking 'is this guy some kind of gun crazy mercenary' or maybe 'is this guy an arms dealer', but the truth is a little bit stranger than that," the man replied before opening up the kit. "Now hop up and let's get you fixed up."

Getting onto the trunk, she decided that the time had come to get some answers from this strange man that had just saved her.

"Who are you?"

"Me? The name's Xander Harris, but I guess it should be Harris Xander over here in Japan," he replied as he took out a bottle whose contents she could not identify. "Now this is probably going to sting like a sonuvabitch but it's all part of the process."

Pouring a bit of the bottle's contents onto a square bandage, he then began to rub it against her wounds, starting with the ones that were bleeding and ending with the ones that were not. He was right in that it did sting but it was nothing that she hadn't learned to cope with throughout the period in which she had been instructed in the use of her weapons as well as close quarters combat. Pushing aside the pain, she decided to move onto the next important question on the list of things she wanted to know about her hero.

"Why did you save me?" she asked before wincing at the protest a particularly loud wound gave her. "You don't even know me."

"Does a man need a reason to help someone in trouble?" Xander asked her rhetorically as he began to apply bandages to the necessary wounds. "I don't think so. Besides, I've always had something of a white knight complex and it's gotten me into quite a bit of trouble helping the helpless, though I suppose over here it'd be called a noble samurai complex."

She almost scoffed at the idea because she might have liked the stories Takami told her about the honorable samurai of the past that would put their very lives on the line to follow their code she knew reality was quite different. That was not to say that there weren't good people but there did not exist a single person that would follow a set of rules so absolutely so as to endure great suffering and misery. Sooner or later they would reach the limit of what they could handle and their own survival instincts, as well as their own aversion to pain, would cause them to break from the code they believed in. She might feel a little bitter about that but at the same time she couldn't really blame them since she was fairly sure that she'd probably do the same in their position.

She was about to ask him another question when the skin of his hand brushed against her thigh as he secured a bandage over the cut that was there. Almost at once she began to feel unusually hot but it was not from the air that this heat came, but from within her own body and it only increased as time went on. As the heat increased, so too did the beating of her heart begin to gather strength and, with this combo, she was only half aware that he was still talking to her. Amidst the new sensory input she tried to figure out why she was feeling the way she was. The answer came to her moments after she had asked the question and her heart soared as she realized that the one that she'd been searching for all these weeks could very well be right in front of her.

I've found him! She thought as she half became aware that he'd taken notice of the change in her condition.

"Are you alright? You look a little flush," Xander said as he put his right hand to her forehead to gauge her temperature.

His touch only fanned the flames within her and it got to the point where she had to do something to relieve the heat or else she would surely pass out. As he brought his eyes level with her own, she knew she had to take advantage of this opportunity since it was by far easier than trying to convince him to take on the role she desired he hold. That was why with speed born of resolve and desire she reached up with both her hands and pulled his face forwards so that their lips pressed together like the most passionate of kisses.

Like a volcano erupting after a period of ominous rumbling, the heat left her body and, though she could not see it, she knew her wings had unfurled behind her.

She had been winged and the man before her was her most precious one.

He was her Ashikabi!

Now and forever she would be with him no matter what came their way.

Apartment 4G, Haruno Apartment Building, Late Evening, Xander's POV

"So you mind explaining all that to me again, Natsu?" he asked as he sat down on her couch.

There was nothing wrong with his hearing but what she'd told him on the ride over to this building was a bit too crazy even for him.

"Sure," Natsu replied from the kitchen area of the apartment. "As you saw back at the parking lot, I'm not what you'd call a normal human. Hell, I'm not even human to begin with. I am a Sekirei."

"And that is?" he asked, recalling wings made of light that sprung from her back after she'd stolen a kiss from him.

Not that he'd minded all that much, considering she was pretty easy on the eyes, but he generally liked to get to know a girl first before he kissed her. Then again his entire life had been about as far from typical as a person could get without trying, so maybe he shouldn't sweat things like 'normal' or 'accepted' so much.

"I suppose the best term would be alien but I'm afraid I can't give you much more information than that. They didn't exactly give us all the details at MBI," she replied as she returned with two cans of local beer in her hands. "Just that they found all of us in a spaceship on Kamikura Island and, based on that discovery, conceived of the Sekirei Plan."

"And that is?" he asked, a little wierded out at the fact that he was standing across from a genuine alien.

"Originally, from what I heard, it was meant to protect me and the others from various governments and organizations that wanted a piece of the spaceship for themselves." She handed him one of the cans. "After those assholes got the message, though, the head of MBI got the idea of turning it into a citywide battle royal between us Sekirei. He says he wants to create a new age of gods and goddesses, to write a real life legend that'd be remembered for centuries, with Shintō Teito as the stage where it'll all happen. Personally I think that bastard is just doing it for kicks or to play at being a kami."

Well this isn't at all what I thought I'd find when I got here. He popped the can open and took a sip. Mmmm. This Orion Draft Beer isn't all that bad.

Indeed, when he arrived he'd assumed pretty much what Giles had told him, that the ladies were either demons or magic users, so the possibility of aliens never even entered the picture. Still, it didn't wig him out as much as it would've when he was back in high school but he attributed that to all the amazing things he'd seen since then. When you've seen fire rain down from the sky, demons of every variety, magic that could literally end the world and other things like that, then it took quite a bit to make his jaw drop in shock.

Still, he didn't think he liked what was happening in this city.

The idea of a group of aliens, both male and female, being forced to duke it out because some CEO wanted to write a chapter of the world's history or something all on his own didn't sit right with him. He was going to wait before doing anything since he only had Natsu's version of events to go by and that wasn't enough to justify what his knee jerk reaction was to the situation, namely gather up a small arsenal and then go and 'convince' the asshole in charge of the plan to change things into something more ethical on pain of a painful and messy end.

"And that whole bit with you stealing a kiss and sprouting light wings from your back?" he asked, deciding to get to the more personal matter of her explanation.

"That? W-well, every Sekirei has been told that there's a special someone, a precious person, waiting for them out in the world and that that person will become our ashikabi," she replied, looking more vulnerable and less crass then a moment ago. "There's also the fact that a Sekirei can't go all out without an ashikabi. If they try to do more than their body is capable of before being 'winged', they could seriously damage their bodies."

"How seriously?" he asked, wanting to know more.

"Potentially dying seriously," she replied, her voice just above a whisper.

Okay, so I've got a young woman who's been told that her soulmate is out in the world somewhere and thinks I'm it resulting in a liplock that, everything I know, tells me is a contract of some kind, he thought as he tried to get a good grasp of his present situation. There's also some kind of tournament coming down the highway where the two of us will probably be expected or bullied into participating in by the CEO of a company that owns most of the city. Not an impossible situation but it still doesn't explain what happened to the two Watcher teams G-Man sent here.

"Any special rules to follow?" he asked, wondering if perhaps one of these might have something to do with the disappearances.

"Why, I'm glad you asked, Harris Alexander!" came an obnoxious voice as Natsu's TV suddenly turned itself on to reveal a white haired guy wearing glasses and a cape.

Now there is a guy who doesn't care if people piss their pants laughing at him. Who the hell wears a white cape these days?!

"To answer your question, the rules of the Sekirei plan are fairly simple," the man said as though he was some game show host. "The first is that you cannot tell anyone not affiliated with the plan about the plan. If you choose to defy this rule, MBI will take steps to make you follow this rule. As for the rest… well, I'll let you know what they are once I've thought of them. Goodnight, Alex-kun!"

Okay so there might be something to Natsu saying this guy's just doing it for his own personal kicks, he thought as he glared at the TV screen for a moment.

Before he could give voice to his disbelief, though, fatigue decided to make itself known and tell him that he still wasn't over the jet lag from his flight. He really wanted to know more but, short of sneaking all super spy-wise into MBI tower and getting some inspirational honesty out of that guy, he doubted that he'd get anything more tonight. Better to get a decent night's sleep and start fresh tomorrow morning.

"Well, as amusing as this might be…," he paused as a yawn escaped him, "I'm still feeling the jet lag from my flight over. I'm going to get some sleep and then we can talk some more."

"You're not staying?" Natsu asked as though he was her special guest and he was rejecting her hospitality.

"Well… we just met and all… so, I figured it'd be a bit much for me to impose on you," he replied, half turning back to her with honesty. "Besides which, this is a pretty small apartment so I'm betting you only have one bed. It'd be a bit forward of me to ask about us sharing it when we haven't known each other for even a day."

Mentally he had to smirk a bit since, had this had been fifteen or twenty years ago, he'd have been a stuttering, uncomfortable mess, sweating at the idea of staying at some pretty girl's apartment. Nowadays, however, he'd been around enough women both romantically as well as not and had sufficient experience in both arenas that it took quite a bit more to fluster him.

Something that his old arms dealer friend Funanya took as a personal challenge every single time they met. Fortunately for him he wasn't likely to bump into her anytime soon since, last he heard, she was away on some business deal on an island in the eastern area of Thailand. Granted, Japan wasn't too big of a hop from that area but he seriously doubted that he'd encounter her since no arms deal he could think of spanned the distance between Thailand and Japan.

"Well, it's already late and… well, I heard that we're supposed to be getting some snow tomorrow so it'd be simpler just to stay here the night," Natsu said, trying to sound as well as look casual but not quite making it. "Besides, who said you'd have to share my futon with me? The couch over there folds out into a bed, so you can sleep there no problem."

Looking over at the couch, he had to admit that her proposed living arrangements would work out well enough for tonight. He'd already decided to hold off on telling her the address of his warehouse HQ for a couple of days until he was certain he could trust her with the info. Sure, she said that she was his Sekirei and him her ashikabi, but that didn't really let him know much about the connection. Did it mean she couldn't betray him even if she wanted or did it mean she'd be more reluctant to stab him in the back then normal? Then again, it could be no different than an employer and an employee but, considering the light show that Natsu's wings put out, he somehow doubted it was something that simple.

"Then I guess you have a guest for tonight," he said with a half grin that she returned.

It didn't take the two of them long to set up the couch bed and, within an hour, he was off to dreamland.

Unknown Location Within Shintō Teito, Midnight

"It has been confirmed. Alexander LaVelle Harris is in Shintō Teito."

"Well then it would appear that the Watcher's Council didn't heed our warnings," he said, leaning back in his seat as he contemplated this turn of events. "Disappointing, considering the reputation they've managed to gain over the last decade or so."

Indeed, while they might not have had the longevity of their predecessors, the current version of the Watcher's Council they had shown themselves to be far more resourceful and adaptable. When he'd first learned of them taking interest in the events going on the city, he'd evaluated their threat potential and determination before removing them from the game board. When a second team from the Council had been dispatched, he'd removed them with just enough delay to let their superiors know they'd arrived at their destination. It had been his belief that after losing two teams that they would rethink involving themselves in matters that do not concern them.

It would appear that they are determined to involve themselves despite my warnings, he thought as he scratched his chin a bit. Perhaps they require a more explicit message in order to make the correct decision.

"Has Dr. Wilson made any progress with the A.S project?" he asked, thinking that perhaps he had an elegant solution to the arrival of one of the Council's founding members.

"As a matter of fact he has," replied his second in command through the phone. "His research has reached a point where he will need to apply what he's learned to a live specimen before he can proceed any further."

"Excellent. Tell him he's free to use the prisoners in rooms 2S and 2W for the process," he declared with a small grin. "Inform the good doctor that he is to use every method at his disposal to ensure the survival of the prisoners as he experiments. Tell him I require those specific prisoners for a mission and at the very least I would like two of them to survive the process so that they can be used in a field exercise."

"You intend to send them after Harris?" asked his second in command.

"Yes. Regardless of whether or not they succeed, they should succeed in driving the point home that they're not wanted in this city and should stay out." He said this with a finality that would not be challenged.

"Based on the information in his latest report, it will take at least a month for them to undergo the procedure and another two weeks following that to ensure they are ready for field testing," stated his second in command after a moment of thought.

"That will be fine. Continue monitoring Mr. Harris' activities and use the information to plan out an appropriate confrontation scenario," he ordered as he decided to bring the call to an end. "Also see if you can determine which of the safe houses we've located he is using as a base of operations. We may be able to glean some useful intelligence from what we find inside."

"It will be as you have ordered, sir." Stated his second in command with resolve enough to assure him that the man would do all he could to accomplish the goals set before him.

With that he reached over to his phone and terminated the call.

It would be interesting to see how things would unfold in a month and a half.

It brought a smile to his lips.

The Next Day, The Streets of Shintō Teito, Natsu's POV

"So how many of… your kind are there?" Xander-sama asked as they walked down the sidewalk together.

"One hundred and eight," she replied, not letting it show that within she was bombarded with desires. "I don't know all of them and some of them might still be undergoing adjustments for the game."

From the first day she'd been told of the word ashikabi and had it explained what precisely such a person would mean to her, she'd spent countless hours imagining what it'd be like when she finally found her most precious person. At first it'd been an image of a perfect man or woman with just the right clothes and just the right physical features who'd always shower her with love and never be mad at her. That was an image she'd had as a child but, as she'd gotten older, it had evolved into something a bit more romance oriented and a little less big brother-ish. Prior to her encountering Xander-sama, her image of an ashikabi was a true partner who would complement her own combat abilities with a keen strategic mind while at the same possessing a kind heart.

From what she could tell of Xander, he did possess a kind heart for what else could explain his coming to her rescue and the tending of her wounds that came afterwards. However she had yet to see any sign of strategic skill outside of his driving ability, so she'd have to wait before she could get confirmation that he met her criteria.

"Adjustments?" he asked sounding a bit curious.

"I don't really know the details," she replied, genuinely not knowledgeable about the process. "It's just something every Sekirei needs to go through before they can leave the MBI compound."

Indeed, when it came to science, she was pretty much a cavegirl so she didn't even bother trying to figure out what the scientists at MBI were saying, even when nice ones like Takami tried to break it down for her in simplest terms. When it came to her combat training, though, her teachers had been impressed with her natural talent and, when she'd shown a strong aptitude for knife throwing, they'd repeatedly challenged her by placing the targets in increasingly difficult positions. She could not say that she was a master at throwing blades, as there had been a couple of challenges she'd been unable to defeat in her training, but she was still pretty damn good if she did say so herself.

Feeling a bit of a chill in the air even with the coat she'd put on and, out of nowhere, an idea came to her that caused her to blush somewhat. The idea had been to use the excuse of the cold to get closer to him and maybe even grab one of his arms so that at the very least they might look like a couple to an outside observer. However the idea of doing so made her decidedly uncomfortable seeing as though they'd known each other for less than twenty-four hours. When he'd voiced the concern last night about the sleeping arrangements, she'd almost been reduced to a stuttering mess but had managed to clear her head when the fold out bed came into her field of vision. All through the night, though, she had taken time whenever she woke up from a particularly… enjoyable… dream to consider what her future would be like from this point forward.

The possibilities that her mind came up with were both great and terrible.

On the one hand she considered the best possible outcome, wherein both she and her ashikabi fell deeply in love and won the tournament that was to come. Indeed it had caused her to break out and hum the traditional song 'here comes the bride' since she figured that Xander would prefer a more American wedding than say a Japanese wedding. She'd had to catch herself a couple of times when she'd gotten loud enough that there was a chance her ashikabi might have heard her but, since he hadn't said anything this morning, she assumed he hadn't. Nevertheless the images her mind had produced of that particular series of actions were quite appealing and had likely been responsible for her whim to grab onto his arm.

It was the other side of the argument that kept her from diving head first into his arms and urged her to take things a day at a time rather than attempt to fit it all into a week. This side of the issue was the possibility that he might not be interested her in the slightest and might… might leave her once his business in the city was done. She didn't want to believe in that but she couldn't discount it as a possibility either since she knew that the reaction her body had towards him was biological rather than emotional. It had been explained by the people at MBI that they would know who their ashikabi was by the way their body reacted to him or her and that it would be an exchange of saliva that would initiate the bond between them. Not once during the entire explanation did they mention that there had to be mutual attraction between the two people in order for her body to react or for her to be winged.

There was even a rumor going around that it was entirely possible for someone to forcibly wing a Sekirei against their will.

It's a good thing that I don't have to worry about that anymore.

"Then I'll leave it at that," he said without another word.

As the silence went on she felt a pressure of awkwardness and anxiety building on her to the point where she had to break it with something.

ANYTHING!

"So… um… have you ever been to Japan before?" she asked before mentally kicking herself for such a pathetic question.

"Nope. I'd considered doing it after graduating from high school since I was a big fan of anime at the time but something always popped up that I couldn't ignore," he replied with a wistful tone. "The last couple of years my job's pretty much kept me locked in Africa. Now that I'm here… well, I wish I'd come in the summer rather than now, if only to be spared the cold."

"Used to living in warmer places, eh?" she asked with a bit of amusement.

"Yep. Born and raised in California and, while in Africa, things usually stayed pretty warm there too."

Seeing him shiver for a moment, she chose to take a chance and grabbed onto his right arm with both of her arms and pulled herself close to him. Her happiness soared at the closeness but, when she looked up at him and saw some unease in his eye, she quickly came up with a harmless reason for her actions.

"Just thought you might like the body heat until you can get some decent winter clothes," she said casually even though her stomach was doing flip-flops.

Seeing the unease change to gratitude, she knew her words had been accepted without him suspecting alternative reasons for the move.

"Probably a good idea to get some since I'll probably be here 'til spring at the earliest," he said, glancing at the gray clouds forming in the sky. "Here's hoping it doesn't start snowing until after I get my new wardrobe or else I'm going to get sick for sure."

"Then how about we go get it now?" she asked with interest before tripping a bit. "I-I mean, unless you have something else to do today."

"Not at the moment. Might need to go out again tonight but, other than that, I'm all yours for today." He said with a lopsided grin that had no equal.

She smiled with joy at that statement even though she knew he probably hadn't intended it the way she had chosen to take it. At this point in their relationship she'd take whatever she could get and then some while she waited for things to develop to a point where she could try something more 'interesting'.

With that in mind and a destination set, the two of them began to head towards the clothing district of the city where she'd 'help' him choose appropriate clothes for the weather.

While she had a little bit of fun in the process, of course.

Evening, Driving Through the Streets of Shintō Teito, Xander's POV

"C'mon, c'mon! You've always been an early riser, G-Man," he said as he heard the phone ringing through the speakerphone. "Pick up!"

He waited until a total of fifteen rings went by before giving up and pressing the 'End Call' button on his cell phone. It was with some frustration that he concluded that either Giles wasn't in his office or Willow was continuing her 'lesson' by intercepting all phone calls from him. Despite being almost forty, it looked like she still had a bit of her old high school spunk and was determined to make him apologize before she let him have access to the Council resources. That, unfortunately for the both of them, wasn't going to happen anytime soon because, as far as he was concerned, he was in the right and had an ace up his sleeve. When Giles failed to receive a written or verbal report from him by tomorrow, the old Brit would get wise to what was going on and force his redheaded friend to undo her bit of mischief. He could survive until then and, since he'd already figured out most of what was going on in this town, all he needed now was some follow orders on what to do about it.

Personally he was hoping it was something along the lines of 'launch a hostile takeover of MBI using any means available' but, then again, he rarely got what he wanted.

So until he got a firm set of orders he'd decided to investigate what happened to the previous two teams that had been sent to the city to investigate the Sekirei.

Pulling into a parking spot in front of the apartment building that the first team had stayed at when they'd come to see what was going on in the city, he took a look about the immediate area for anything that struck him as odd. This quickly proved to be pointless, though, since he was not familiar enough with Japanese norms to be able to tell if what he was seeing was normal or not. Getting out of the car, he entered the building and reached into his pocket to pull out the spare key to the apartment that he'd taken out from his HQ. Now, while some might think that it was pretty stupid to have it set up like that, there were precautions taken to make sure that no non-Council member would ever be able to use it. It was a basically taking the S.E.P spell and altering it so that it'd become the Some Other Key spell, tricking the baddie holding them into always choosing the wrong key. It wasn't perfect but he'd yet to hear of a single enemy of the Council successfully overcoming it and gaining access to one of their bases or safe houses.

After reaching the floor, he wanted he immediately began to look around for signs of a fight or signs of battle damage being repaired within the last two months or so. It was times like these that his experience in the construction business came in handy because, whether it was his fault or someone else's, he'd gotten pretty thorough instruction on how to patch up battle damage. Carefully scanning every surface and every wall fixture for signs of recent replacement or patching, he was increasingly dismayed by what his brain was telling him. It was his opinion that no Council team would go down easy if they came under fire from an enemy and, if it was too much for them to handle, they'd make a break for it. If the fight had broken out into the hallway there should have been repairs consistent with dented/sliced/blown apart walls, along with demolished light fixtures. Collateral damage and Slayers went together like fire and heat, so the idea that a fight happened out in the hallway with no damage being done was a universal impossibility.

Let's hope the inside is a bit more informative. He chose the right key and unlocked the door to the apartment safe house.

Entering the room, his worry increased but not by as much as it could have.

While he did see signs of a fight, they weren't widespread enough to indicate a prolonged fight. Instead it looked more like the team had been taken by surprise, had fought for a few minutes and then been defeated soundly by whomever had attacked them. Strolling about the room, he tried his best to reconstruct how the attack happened from the evidence he could see and what it told him bothered him significantly. It looked as though all three members of the team had tried to fight back but had their abilities impaired to a significant degree. He could tell that by depth of the cuts in the objects that had been used to block an attack by a blade, as well as the relative intactness of most of the objects. Reaching into his pocket, he took out a rock from the stuff he'd brought with him and with a few words activated it so that it could tell if there any arcane elements remained in the room. The colors that showed up on the rock were a combination of red, green and white, letting him know what sort of spells had been used in the room.

Red indicated a combat spell of some sort and, given the file he'd read on the first team's magic user, it was probably a fireball spell.

The green color indicated a spell that worked on the flesh and would either debilitate or slowly kill the target, implying perhaps a paralysis spell or entropy spell. He seriously hoped that this one had been used against the attackers because, if it'd been used on the Council team, they would not be in good shape when he found them.

The white color however indicated the presence of non-arcane elements and that was a bit of an oddity. While the Council had made some progress in modernizing the way it did things, most of its enemies were still pretty much set in their ways. Demons used their claws, sharp teeth and melee weapons. Warlocks and dark witches used their magic spells or artifacts. Vampires used melee combat weapons or hand to hand combat. The only real exceptions were those devils at Wolfram & Hart but, after the destruction of their L.A branch as well as two others, those three high level demons knew better than to take the Council lightly. True, the one in Los Angeles was more Deadboy's win than the Council's, it was also a fact that if Buffy hadn't led a rescue team in there, the Fang Gang would've been killed by army of the Senior Partners. Therefore in his mind the Council deserved at least partial credit for how things turned out.

I'll have to check with some non-Council sources to see if they've heard about W&H being up to something in this area. He began to take samples of various parts of the room. If they are, I'll probably need to call in some serious back up.

Once he stored the samples from the five most likely places to find chemical residue, he was about to see if the first team had followed SOP when it came to their investigation info when he spotted a shadow out on the apartment's balcony. For a moment he thought that the unknown enemy behind the team's disappearance had returned to deliver a repeat performance but, when he caught a glint of metal strapped to the figure's upper arm, he realized that it was Natsu. With a sigh he walked over to the sliding door and yanked it open before the Sekirei could do more than squeak in shock at the action.

"Please don't tell me that being a voyeur is one of your hobbies, Natsu." He said in perfect deadpan as he crossed his arms across his chest. "If it is then I'm gonna have to ask that you be a bit better at it because if an one eyed man can spot you, then everyone else probably can too."

He had to exert some self-control when she blushed so much he almost became worried about her health but managed to keep from chuckling at her reaction to his suggestion.

"XANDER-SAMA!" she exclaimed in embarrassment at what he'd implied. "Just what sort of girl do you think I am?!"

"Well, since I've only known you for about a day I can't really say I know what sort of girl you are, so…" he said as casually as one might discuss a restaurant's menu.

"Well I don't DO that sort of stuff!" she declared forcefully before shouldering her way into the apartment. "I was just… keeping an eye on you just in case the S&M twins came after you. Those losers can be pretty bitchy when someone makes trouble for them."

For a moment he considered playing things out a bit more for his own amusement but decided against it since it looked like Natsu was embarrassed enough.

"Well, thanks for that but I don't think those two coming after me is very likely," he said as he resumed examining the apartment. "Besides, I've got more important things to worry about at the moment."

"Like what?" she asked with genuine curiosity.

"Finding out what happened to some co-workers of mine." He opened the door to one of the bedrooms. "They went missing a while back and my boss told me to come here and find out what happened to them. Want to help look this place over?"

"Sure!" she replied, sounding happy to be of assistance.

With that the two of them began to look about the apartment for anything out of the ordinary and, while he was the better trained, they managed to gather a few more clues between the two of them. Not enough to give him a clue as to who was responsible but, just like old Sherlock Holmes, he'd try to make the best of every scrap of info he had to piece together the larger puzzle.

When he had at least a basic idea of what had happened to the two Council teams, then he could go about rescuing them from whatever or whoever had abducted them.

And if they were dead, he would see the parties responsible share a similar fate.

If he was feeling compassionate enough to let them die.

Two Weeks Later, Black Lotus Bar, Evening, Natsu's POV

"Just keep cool, Natsu, and this'll all end without trouble," Xander said as they entered the seedy looking establishment.

"I'll be okay, Xander," she said even though she still kept close to him and let her eyes monitor the room for threats.

In the last fourteen days her ashikabi had shown her a side to the city that she had not thought existed and, to be honest, it bothered her. When she'd been within MBI's facility she'd been educated on the world that lay outside and how it worked so that she'd be able to survive as well as any human. Upon her release she had made her way into the human world well enough despite a few initial stumblings and hiccups but obviously her lessons had been lacking crucial details. There was a darker side of the world in which she lived and Xander had explained how it worked even as he showed it to her as he looked for his missing comrades. After examining the apartments that the two teams had lived in prior to their disappearance, they'd followed up on what leads they had to find the missing people. Those leads had taken them away from the lighter side of the world and into the darkness were things like laws mattered less and less. There'd even been a few places where he'd ordered her to stay outside of 'for her own safety' and, while she'd told him she could handle herself, he'd made it clear not to go against him on this.

The bangs, booms and screams of pain had made that very difficult each and every time.

This night, however, was expected to be the end of the legwork because in the bar they were meeting someone who dealt in weapons and magic. All the other people they'd 'interviewed' had told them much about the tools used in the apartment attacks or the ingredients used in their production, but none had been able to point out any potential buyers that sounded like potential suspects. Still, her ashikabi seemed optimistic about what he'd find in this bar so she would do her best to make sure that he got what he was after.

"I'm looking for someone who calls themselves 'The Ebon Angel'. They're expecting me," Xander said once he sat down in front of the bar.

"And who are you, gaijin?" the bald and tattooed lady bartender asked, sounding like she didn't have a high opinion of men who were of the Caucasian persuasion.

"I go by many names but the one they'd recognize around here is White Knight Harris." Xander replied, not being intimidated by the woman's appearance in the least.

THIS got a reaction that was a mix of realization and respect with just a pinch of surprise thrown in for flavoring.

"She'll be down in a few minutes," Miss Tats said after reaching under the bar to do something.

"Good," he said before pointing at a vacant table to the left of the bar.

The two of them moved over to the table before sitting down and taking in the rest of the bar. The place seemed to be filled with those that, either by choice or fate, would never be what most people would classify as 'normal'. Disfigurements, missing limbs, tattoos of every variety, piercings in places that'd be painful to have them placed and clothes that went from indecent to ridiculous levels of clashing. As a result, she was fairly sure that the two of them stood out like sore thumbs but she did her best to keep her cool even though she was fairly sure a third of the room was giving them the hairy eyeball.

That didn't stop her from fingering one of her throwing knives every couple of minutes.

It was about ten minutes later that she saw a change in Xander that let her know that something beyond the normal was about to happen. Looking in the direction he was gazing in, she saw a woman approaching them that instantly put her on the defensive due to how she was looking at her ashikabi. Tight black leather pants, crimson bikini top, light brown skin and dreadlocks done up into a pony tail were the most remarkable features but she was concerned with the woman's eyes.

They were the eyes of a lustful predator looking at prey, prey that was named Xander Harris.

"Been a long while, Alexander," the woman said in an unfamiliar accent. "I be rememberin' our last meetin' well!"

"Same here, Funanya," Xander said with only a bit of strain in his polite tone. "So… Ebon Angel? How'd you get that name?"

"One of my clients be takin' a shine to me a few years back. We had some fun in de bedroom an', after dat, him never call me by my name again," Funanya replied with a saucy smile as she grabbed a nearby chair before sitting down on it. "Den everyone else did de same, except for de ones I no like. Now, what you be knockin' on my door for, huh?"

"Two investigations teams came to this city to investigate some… unique… people but both vanished within a few days of arrival. I got sent here to figure out what's going on," Xander replied before passing the seductress a sheet of paper. "A thorough examination of the apartments they were using before vanishing turned up this. Everyone I talked to in the last two weeks says you're the one to talk to if I want to find the perps."

"Hmmmm… yes, dese be things I offer," Funanya said as she read the list. "As for me clients, you know I can't be givin' out names just like dat. When people be comin' to me to buy somethin', dey be expectin' a bit of 'confidentiality' from me. I be needin' some special 'compensation' if you be wantin' dere names."

"What kind of compensation? Money?!" she asked, not liking one bit the tone in the woman's voice.

Funanya looked at her like woman had only just realized that she was there and this only caused her to glare even harder at the bitch.

The woman actually LAUGHED at that!

"So who is dis, Alexander? One of your Slayers?" Funanya asked after she finished laughing.

"No, this is Natsu. I… ran into her during the course of my investigation," Xander replied, shaking his head in the negative. "She's been lending me a hand."

"Just a hand?" Funanya asked, sounding like she suspected something decidedly more… lewd.

"Just because you bed the guys you meet and like within twelve hours of meeting them doesn't mean that everyone is like that," Alexander replied, rolling his eye at the innuendo. "I prefer to take things slower. Kinda like a good meal: wolfing it down is disrespecting the meal and you're more likely to remember it if you take the time to savor every bite."

Hearing that, she didn't know whether or not she should be offended at being compared to a good meal. On the one hand it made her believe that, if she could convince him to see her as she saw him, that he would treasure every moment they spent together. On the other hand, food was food no matter how fancy you made it look and she'd prefer the respect afforded a person to the respect one gave a well prepared meal. In the end she decided that she'd wait until she could speak to him in a more private setting.

Now if she could just figure out how to say it without embarrassing herself in the process…

"Same old Alexander," Funanya commented ruefully before deciding to move things along. "In dat case den it'd take ten free passes back home for me to point you in de right direction."

"Five," Xander counter offered before crossing his arms over his chest.

"Seven and dey can be for whatever I want," Funanya said, haggling the price even further.

"Seven and nothing that compromises the security of the realm. Not even a little!" he said, making it clear that this was as far as he'd go on this.

"Done," Funanya said with a nod of her head.

A shake of the hands later and it was time for the information.

"Dese items be fairly popular among professionals but, as for de type dat might've gone after your teams, I can t'ink of two," Funanya said after a moment's recollection. "One be a known problem solver for hire. Goes by the name 'Razor' and is considered good enough for what be needed if de price be right. He buy quite a few things dat make me think he be takin' on a serious target. As for de other… not much information on him except that he be a high roller in the corporate world. Always works through a middle man with me."

"And the name of this middle man?" Xander asked, probing for more information.

"Kakizaki. Tall, slim build, black hair with glasses and a yellow tie to go with his business suit." Funanya replied, rattling off the man's description. "Don't know where you'd find de first one but de second one has been spotted all over town, so methinks you'll bump into him sooner or later if you go where de action is."

"He likes a good show?" Xander asked with some curiosity in his voice.

"More like he see opportunity in conflict," Funanya replied with an unexpected tone of dislike. "Him and de one he work for. Dey play de game and dey play to win."

"Here's hoping they like some competition." Xander said with determination.

"Don't think it'd be a fair fight, Alexander." Funanya said with a smirk on her face.

"I'll go easy on them then," her ashikabi said in a way that almost made her think she was serious, "Maybe."

"I be sure to keep de TV on de next few days den," Funanya commented before getting up from her chair. "See ya later, milord!"

With that the woman with the light brown skin walked away, leaving her alone with her ashikabi and making her wonder if this might be the time to make a small move.

Then she remembered the sort of place they were in and the mood was killed.

Definitely not romantic enough for her liking so she'd wait.

Not for long, but she'd wait.

A Rooftop of the City, Twenty-Six Days Later, Night

"The doctor's work is impressive," he said as he circled the prototypes, inspecting them with his eyes. "Not a single visible scratch on them and the desired tattoo in the right place. Though, if memory serves, there were more subjects than this in the two cells I designated."

"He sends his apologies, sir. Apparently some of the final procedures proved to be too much for them and, despite his best efforts, they expired on the operating table," his subordinate explained after checking some information on his smart phone. "However he is adamant in his belief that you will be satisfied with these three."

Finishing his visual examination of the three, he admitted that at least visually the two teenage girls and the thirty-something woman looked like they should. However the real test would be if they could fight like the real thing and possessed the abilities of the genuine article. If they failed that test or did not pass with flying colors then he would be most displeased with the doctor and make it known to the man in the usual manner.

"Razor? Initiate the bond with the three of them," he ordered, looking at the representative of his 'partners' in this venture.

Nodding once, the man that looked like he belonged in some heavy metal rock band signed by a major recording label walked up to the woman and kissed her on the lips. There was a moment of delay but then, just as he'd hoped, the bonding procedure became visible to the naked eye, lighting up the immediate area nicely. This was repeated twice more proving that replication of the bonding process had proven successful but only time and careful observation would determine if he could call this a complete success.

"An encouraging beginning but the real test begins now." He turned to Razor, narrowing his eyes to show his determination. "You have been given the tracking device that will lead you to your target: Alexander Harris. Once a positive identification has been made you will order these three to kill him using every means at their disposal. Other operatives will be close by recording the entire encounter so it can be analyzed and compared to the baseline data we have on the originals. Failure will be frowned on both by me and your superiors."

"You needn't worry, sir," Razor said, his speech at odds with his appearance. "I pride myself on being a consummate professional on all my jobs. Besides, three on one is going to make failure highly unlikely."

"So said many who've tried to kill Harris, if my information is accurate. Yet he's still here," he pointed out, not wanting carelessness or arrogance to muck things up.

"Not to worry, sir. Even if these three fail they'll soften him up enough that I can go in for the kill myself." Razor said with no break in his confidence concerning the outcome.

"Then I leave this up to you," he said, turning around and walking towards the rooftop entrance to the building they were on.

He didn't even need to look to know that his trusted subordinate had fallen into line behind him but only when they were two floors down did he speak.

"You have news for me?" he asked, knowing that the earlier checking of the smart phone wasn't for experiment data.

"Yes, sir. Our agents have finally confirmed the identity of the woman who's been with Harris for the last few weeks. Number seventy-two Natsu."

"Well then, that should make the confrontation a little more even. Less of an execution and more a lost cause," he said with a small grin at the turn of events. "If our source in the Watcher's Council is to be believed, the man has experience with that type of situation."

Indeed, his bought Council member had proven to be a valuable source of information and would likely be so for a time before the rest of the organization got wise to what was happening. After that, his mole would either bolt or go silent for a time with no guarantee that the silence would end at all. He didn't particularly care, though, since he'd gained more than enough data to move forward with his plans and what he lacked he was sure his 'partners' would be willing to provide.

Still, it might prove prudent to at least put some assets close to his source's location just in case he decided extraction was called for.

Unlikely but still possible.

Northern Shinto Teito, Later, Xander's POV

"Think we should keep looking around here or go somewhere else?" Natsu asked as they walked up to his rental car after they'd finished exploring every street within a ten block radius for signs of their target.

"Unless Glasses is a night owl I doubt we'll see him pounding the pavement even if he is on a job for his boss," he replied, a little frustrated at their lack of progress in the search for the missing investigation teams. "Still, a quick spin around the town in the car is worth doing before hitting the sack. That okay with you?"

"Sure!" Natsu replied, sounding as though any excuse to spend time with him was to be taken.

Normally this would be the point where he'd be worried that his bad luck with women had added 'extra-terrestrial' to the labels of potential dating disasters but he actually had a good feeling about his relationship with the knife thrower. With his connection to the gang back home STILL 'out of order' thanks to Willow's desire to teach him a lesson, he'd gotten a bit lonely during the course of his search. At first when Natsu had explained everything to him, he'd decided to keep things professional since he wanted to confirm a few facts before assuming his responsibilities as an ashikabi, but now… now he'd grown to like her company. In a lot of ways she reminded him of the good old days of the Scooby gang when time and experience had only just started to change how they acted by bestowing too-soon maturity on them. The short haired woman wasn't a hormonally driven teenager by any means but he could tell that she still had quite a bit of innocence to her and he found he liked that.

She reminded him that there were brighter parts of the world rather than dark shades of gray.

The fact that she sometimes looked at him with lovey-dovey eyes was the only reason he hadn't invited her back to the warehouse base just yet. If she knew where he lived she'd either be popping up there every chance she got or dropping the idea of her moving in with him and he wasn't sure if he wanted to take the relationship to that level just yet. After all, once he finished his investigation, found the missing investigation teams and then put an end to whatever evil was afoot, he'd be heading back to Africa. Sure, he trusted Zola to run things in his absence, he knew he couldn't neglect his duties back there forever and, while not as busy as Sunnyhell at its worst, it still kept the Slayers stationed there hopping.

Sadly the use of the word hopping and his African Slayers caused the memory of the pool party and the following training session to pop into his head, with the Slayer Janice in the lead role.

That girl took entirely too much pleasure in making him blush in the most lust-filled ways possible, especially using her… endowments. She might be a good Slayer in a fight but, when she wasn't on the clock, she did things that made even Faith gape in shock and, up until he'd met Janice, he'd thought that to be impossible.

"XANDER-SAMA! LOOK OUT!" Natsu screamed before something slammed into his side, knocking him to the ground.

As he hit the ground, he almost knocked the thing that had slammed into him until he recognized Natsu and then he looked back the way they'd come to find a light cloud of dust or dirt obscuring the spot. It didn't last long thanks to the weather of the night and, when it cleared, he found himself looking at a teenage girl wearing a somewhat futuristic looking skin tight bodysuit. There were armor plates in all the necessary areas, as well as a next gen piece of electronic head gear he'd bet good money could see things in multiple spectrums and provide a HUD for following tracking beacons. He could only see the lower half of the girl's face and, without seeing the upper half or any hair, identifying who she was would be impossible.

What he could tell was that a direct hit from the girl's fists was not in his best interests despite how he'd toughened up over the years.

Watching as the teenager pulled her right fist from the six inch deep hole it'd made at the center of the spider webbed sidewalk, he quickly chose to get back to his feet so he could face what was coming. Natsu followed his lead and pulled two throwing knives out with each hand from their respective holsters, making it clear she intended to fight.

"Not a bad sneak attack, little lady, but you missed," he said, trying to get the unknown attacker talking. "Now, since I've been known to upset my share of ladies in my life, I'm willing to let this slide if you tell me why you just tried to punch a hole in my chest. Did I stick you with the bill somewhere?"

He didn't get any response other than another lunging, full force punch, but this time he saw her coming and so he was able to evade the attack, causing the teenager to shoot by without connecting. One thing he noticed though was that, on the exposed portion of her back, just below the neck, was a tattoo similar to the one that Natsu had shown him. The difference, though, was that instead of a bird design with the ying-yang symbol beneath it, the tattoo was of a pair of swords caught in the jaws of a demonic looking skull.

"Natsu! Did you see what I saw?" he asked as the attacker turned around in preparation for another assault.

"If you mean something like a Sekirei tattoo then, yes, I did," Natsu replied before throwing two of her blades at the exposed parts of their assailant.

"You think she might be one of your siblings? Maybe some separate division that guy at MBI cooked up?" he asked, wanting to test the more preferable scenario first.

"No. This girl's no Sekirei," she replied with a firm certainty. "The professor's a big drama queen and made sure our outfits were designed to fit the story he's writing. He wouldn't have had this outfit made up. Too drab for him."

DAMN! He watched the attacker bat the blades out of the air like they were paper airplanes. That means someone is trying to make artificial Sekirei and putting their own personal seal on the recruits.

Thinking over the various possible courses of action, he decided that while winning would be tough, a few choice weapons from the trunk of the car would make it possible.

"Natsu! Keep her busy for a couple of minutes!" he said, evading another punch. "I need to get a few things!"

"No problem!" she said before shifting the blades in her hands to something more conducive to a close quarters fight before closing the gap between her and the attacker.

Smart move.

Whoever the teenage girl was, she was quick enough and skilled enough that long range attacks past a certain distance were useless. By getting in closer Natsu would have the attacker's complete attention but it also had the risk of getting hit by one of those concrete-shattering punches. Hopefully, though, he'd have the weapons he was after before a blow landed and they'd get to see if little miss assassin could swat bullets out of the air.

Some higher being must've been listening because, just after he popped the trunk, a dark purple light illuminated the left side of the car and was definitely getting brighter. Knowing what this meant, he grabbed the closest weapon he could see before diving away from the car mere seconds before it got hit with some sort of crackling energy ball. At first he thought that it might've been the S&M twins looking to get some payback but, when he looked over his shoulder, he saw a thirty-something woman dressed identically to the teenage girl drop to the ground from the roof of a nearby building. Considering the building was four stories tall, that immediately told him that, along with the purple energy crackling around the hands, the woman had a superhuman body.

Just FUCKING great! he thought as got to one knee. Now we have someone who can fry you from a distance AND pound you into paste!

Looking at what remained of his car, he could safely say that it wouldn't be cruising down the street anytime soon. Whatever the energy attack was, it'd obliterated the roof of the car and mangled the insides pretty badly, not to mention doing considerable damage to the contents of the trunk. There might be a few salvageable things there but he somehow doubted that the new arrival was going to just stand there and let him inspect things. Looking at the weight in his right hand, the weapon he'd wound up pulling out of the trunk turned out to be the sword case he'd been given back at Watcher HQ. Not his personal preference but better than nothing considering the time constraints he was under, so he popped open the case and yanked out the blade that the instructions had labeled 'First Sword'. It was a somewhat exaggerated two-handed sword with a long hilt wrapped in red, a decent sized handguard and a double-edged blade that could snap together or split into something looking like two blades connected by complex inner workings.

Deciding that he wanted a more solid sword, he flicked the switch in the hilt to snap it together before bringing it up into a guard position. Another blast of purple energy was sent his way but thankfully he'd been ready for it and had the perfect weapon to block it with. It went without saying back at Watcher HQ that just about every melee weapon they had possessed a high degree of magic resistance. After all, while it was part of the training that mages were best killed from a distance, there were inevitably times in which that simply wasn't possible for a Slayer or Watcher. In those cases, when getting up close was necessary, weapons with a high magic resistance were brought out since they could block or under certain circumstances deflect magical attacks.

Now that wasn't to say that a determined mage or sorceress couldn't eventually power their way through the weapon and break it, but it'd take a while, but that was not something he wasn't planning on giving his attacker the opportunity to do.

Charging the woman, he used his sword to protect himself from the worst of her attacks and, once he was close enough, he went with the old feint and slash technique. It worked like a charm and, with a diagonal slash from the right hip to the left shoulder, he managed to draw first blood though it was something of a close call. Whatever material the woman's outfit was made out of, it was definitely resistant to blades and, if it wasn't for all the arcane add-ons, it probably wouldn't have worked at all. Watching the woman back away with a burst of speed, he saw the red blood drip from the wound but, instead of backing off, she was the one that charged him this time.

So much for my advantage against magical attacks, he thought as he saw a kick swinging his way. Guess it's time to use the reach this weapon gives me to my advantage!

Bringing up his sword so that the kick would hit it before it'd hit him, he was caught completely by surprise when she tucked the kicking leg in at the last minute before shooting the leg back out striking the flat side of his sword. Completely unprepared for this, the weapon was knocked from his hands, clattering to the ground a couple of feet away, leaving him completely unarmed. Watching as the woman's fist pushed the air aside on its way to his face, he barely ducked under it in time but took advantage of the fact that he was within his enemy's guard. Squeezing his fingers together to form a spearhead of flesh, he thrust it forward, aiming for the open wound with the intent of causing further pain as well as perhaps a debilitating injury. His efforts were only partially effective because, while his blow did succeed in inducing pain, the woman managed to use her free hand to grab onto the wrist of his attacking hand, preventing it from penetrating more than half an inch.

As he felt the pressure rise on his wrist from the woman's grip, he knew he had to free himself or risk losing the use of that hand. With resolve born of a strong mind, he called upon the power he'd gained in Africa and, as he felt it surge through his body, he felt his strength increase. It wasn't the maximum he could bring out because the truth of the matter was that it was dangerous for him to push himself that hard.

He'd been scolded enough by the girls back in his assigned region for pushing himself too hard and he had no intention of letting Natsu do it here if he could help it.

Using the strength he'd brought forth, he yanked his hand out of her grasp using his fingertips to worsen the wound made by his sword, even if it was only by a little. This actually had the effect of causing the woman to drop to one knee, leaving him with a choice to make: press his advantage and take her out of the fight or go for his weapon to stack things even more in his favor.

He went with the former if for no other reason than he disliked showing his back to an enemy, even if it was only for a minute or so.

Charging forward, he grabbed her head and thrust his knee into her face as hard as he could, cracking her goggles in three places, ringing the woman's mental bell and disorienting her further. Then, to hedge things even further, he grabbed her by the neck and the bottom of one of the armor plates before spinning around and slamming her face first into the side of a parked car. Dropping her to the ground, he watched for five seconds to see if she'd be getting back up and, when nothing happened, he turned to help Natsu.

She definitely could use some help., One arm hanging limp and an unsteady stance means she got hit solidly at least once. If this keeps going, one of us is going to be seriously hurt or maybe killed.

Picking up the 'First Sword' as he ran, he tossed it into the case before snapping the locks into place. Once he got close enough to both Natsu and her foe, he swung the sturdy case at the attacker's head and successfully managed to do some damage to the side of the girl's head as well as break off part of the goggles as confirmed by bits of metal and plastic falling to the ground.

"We're leaving!" he said to Natsu as he grabbed her uninjured arm and began pulling her into a nearby alleyway. "You're injured and I'm not sure I could beat both of them while still getting both of us to the hospital."

Natsu didn't say anything but neither did she resist running, so they made good time trying to get away from their attackers. His plan was to run as fast as they could flat out for six to eight minutes and then duck into the first populated building they came across. It was a gamble but it was his bet that whoever was attacking him wouldn't risk the witnesses to their activities and would give up until the two of them were once again by themselves.

Something he wouldn't let happen until he was properly armed and Natsu was fully healed up.

After the fifth turn and the fourth block of their evasion, he began to sense his Sekirei's fatigue building up and he knew they wouldn't be getting much farther unless he carried her. Looking about, he tried to find an appropriate place to duck into and found nothing but some sort of apartment building a little ways up the street. Stopping only long enough to toss Natsu over his shoulder, he began to run with all the speed he could muster without tapping further into his inner power. As he got closer he actually thought that his spur-of-the-moment plan would work.

He should've known that, outside of his African stomping grounds, Murphy would choose that moment to announce his comeback.

With more force than ever before, Natsu's opponent dropped from the sky, delivering an axe kick to the pavement that knocked everything helter skelter, including the ground beneath his feet. Knocked to the ground, he immediately put Natsu up against the wall that surrounded the apartment building he'd been heading to before opening the sword case to get a weapon.

"Looks like we'll have to fight them after all!" he said reaching for a weapon. "Cover me from there, Natsu, I'll—"

That was the most he could get out before a blast of purple struck his reaching hand, forcing him to pull it back in pain. Taking a moment to look at his hand, he could tell it was pretty burned and would definitely need burn cream to be applied before being wrapped up. Still, it could've been worse but, as he watched the energy using attacker from earlier drop down, he knew that being turned into a smoking black briquette was still a possibility. Getting to his feet, he prepared himself to do some serious fighting but then stopped as he saw something that almost caused him to forget about the pain from the burns.

He could see her face.

He could see the face of the woman who'd been throwing energy blasts at him.

"Caridad?" he gasped, unable to believe that one of the people he'd been looking for was right in front of him.

Daring a glance to the teenage girl approaching from his right, he could see most of the young woman's face even if the upper right was still obscured by part of the goggles.

Dana.

WHAT THE FUCK!?

Fact One: two investigation teams go missing investigating the Sekirei phenomena. Dana was on one and Caridad was assigned to the second once the first went missing, since it was hoped that a more experienced Slayer would prevent a repeat. Fact Two: Both teams are taken captive with no evidence to suggest that they'd been killed either in the apartments or at another location. Fact Three: he was now being attacked by two members of those teams that were almost certainly being forced against their will, given that they'd been friends last time he'd seen them. Fact Four: they were exhibiting abilities consistent with Sekirei and had similar tattoos at the base of their necks.

Someone had captured the teams and used them in experiments to create their own Sekirei while making sure of their obedience.

That PISSED him OFF!

"Natsu! No fatal wounds whatsoever on these two!" he ordered as he prepared for a much harder fight. "These are two of the people I came here to find! Knock them out, take them out of the fight somehow, do whatever you have to but DO NOT kill them!"

"I don't think that'll be a problem Xander-sama," Natsu said, doing her best to put up a decent defense as she stood. "I think I'll have a tougher time keeping her from killing ME!"

"Just do the best you can and we'll get through this somehow," he said as he prepared to deal with an energy manipulator unarmed.

I hope.